VP Ma’ruf Amin Calls for Business Sector’s Active Role in Tackling Climate Change

The business sector has initiated support to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the development and management of biodiversity-based green open spaces (RTH) with a target area of 286,469 hectares across 27 provinces this year.

According to Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, the business sector should make efforts to tackle climate change in terms of sustainable environmental management.

“I encourage the business sector to play an active role in overcoming climate change issues and managing the environment sustainability,” the Vice President said in his remarks at the 2021 Corporate Performance Rating Program Award in Environmental Management (Proper), Tuesday (12/28), Jakarta.

On that occasion, the Vice President emphasized that industry players should participate in the target plan of Forestry and Other Land Use (FoLu) Net Sink 2030 to minimize the adverse climate change impacts.

The Government, he added, has set the target for Indonesia to achieve Net-Zero Emission by 2060 or as early as possible.

“Indonesia is highly committed to reducing greenhouse emissions and supports the target of achieving Net-Zero Emissions,” he said.

Ma’ruf also pointed out the importance of cooperation with various parties in optimizing sustainable environmental management to achieve a sustainable living environment.

“Indonesia must set an example for good cooperation in tackling climate change and manage the environment sustainability through concrete actions. The handling of climate change and various global challenges must go forward hand in hand, such as poverty alleviation and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he said.

Furthermore, the Vice President said that the environmental management shows improvement as the number of companies that realizes the importance of preserving the environment has increased.

“Today, a lot of companies are aware of the importance of their role in environmental management. This year, the percentage of Proper compliance reaches 75 percent with 691 innovations. Most of innovations are in the field of energy efficiency,” he explained.

At the end his remarks, the Vice President expressed hope that the communities will be more empowered through programs provided by the Government to boost the community’s productivity.

“I hope that the community empowerment efforts will remain a sustainable program, the amount of funds disbursed will increase as well,” the Vice President remarked.

Previously, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said that the Government will improve the environment quality through measures to improve and develop company performance.

“Ministry of Environment and Forestry as the implementing facilitator together with the Proper Advisory Council, will continue to drive developments in an effort to improve company performance as a contribution to better environmental quality,” the Minister said.

For the record, Proper is a program with the aim of encouraging the business sector to improve environmental management performance so that it continues to develop and improve in a sustainable manner.

During 2021, there are three developments with new aspects in the business sector performance, which are related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Eco-innovation, and Social Innovation.

As many as 47 companies received Gold Ratings for this year’s Corporate Performance Rating Program Award in Environmental Management.